John's ready for a knees up

TO be able to run a game from midfield on one working leg and with your 40th birthday peeping over the horizon, you need one of two things - talent beyond the normal, or determination by the bucketful. John Sheridan is blessed with both.

TO be able to run a game from midfield on one working leg and with your 40th birthday peeping over the horizon, you need one of two things - talent beyond the normal, or determination by the bucketful.

John Sheridan is blessed with both of those qualities.

The first - his wonderful natural talent - has given him a magnificent playing career which now stretches back over two decades.

The second - his sheer, bloody-minded determination - could yet see his soccer career extended still further... as the full-time manager of Oldham Athletic.

He'd love the chance to be boss but is up against tough competition for the permanent job, with ex-Manchester City and Port Vale manager Brian Horton expected to throw his hat into the ring.

The 13,000 non-paying customers who marvelled at Sheridan's midfield mastery in last Sunday's 6-0 trouncing of Grimsby Town at Boundary Park will take great exception to me referring to the 39-year-old Latics caretaker player-manager as a cripple.

Crippled

But in soccer terms, that's exactly what Sheridan is. In non-medical parlance, his right knee is knackered.

The problems in his knee which began while he was a Bolton player in the 90s, have worsened to the extent that he now needs replacement surgery.

But as I discovered when I chatted to him in the manager's office at Boundary Park this week, Sheridan is not the type of man to let a little thing like a non-working knee prevent him from going about his business.

"Oh I'll get myself a new knee sooner or later," he says as though he was talking about getting a new car.

"We are a bit short of players at the moment so I have to keep picking myself.

"Anyway my game has always been about passing. I've never been one who liked to gallop about all over the pitch so playing with only one good knee hasn't been too much of a disadvantage. I've only ever used my left leg to stand on, anyhow."

As you can tell, Oldham's caretaker player-manager is not short in the strength-of-character department.

But oddly enough, it was a character defect which prevented him from achieving his boyhood dream... to follow in the footsteps of Colin Bell and become a star at Manchester City.

Sessions

"I was born in Stretford, not far away from Old Trafford, but it was City I supported as I was growing up and Colin Bell was my big hero," he explained.

"I did actually sign schoolboy forms with the Blues when I was about 14 and used to go along for sessions at the training ground they had then in Cheadle with lads like Andy May and Steve Kinsey.

"I think the coaching staff thought I had the talent to make the grade but my attitude was all wrong as a kid. I was more interested in hanging around with my mates than preparing myself for a career in soccer so, looking back, it was probably no surprise that City didn't take me on as an apprentice.

"I ended up playing for the local amateur side Stretford Vics on Sundays and a scout from Leeds United came to watch one of our games.

"I must have done something right because the next thing I knew I was signing for Leeds. I was 16 years old and the manager at Elland Road was Allan Clarke, who was a bit of an odd-bod.

"But I was in the Leeds first-team by the time I was 17 and I had eight enjoyable years at Elland Road even if I spent all of that time playing in the old Second Division."

Sheridan, however, was to reach the big time before his Elland Road team-mates with his silky midfield skills and pin-point passing, earning him a £750,000 transfer to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest during season 1988-89.

"Playing for Brian Clough was the strangest experience of my life," he recalls.

"My stay at Forest lasted three months and in that time he selected me for only one first-team match.

"Don't ask me why because I can't explain it. The one game I played was a cup-tie against Huddersfield and I was voted man of the match but Cloughie never picked me again.

"I hardly ever saw him while I was a Forest player. He would turn up at the training ground now and again with his dog, but he never took any of the sessions. It was quite unbelievable, really.

"But he called me into his office one day and said he had accepted a bid for me from Sheffield Wednesday.

Ideas man

"I told him that I would prefer to stay and fight for a place in his first-team, but he told me that I would be wasting my time. He said I wasn't in his first-team plans for the future so he didn't leave me much choice. And off I went to Sheffield.

"There were all sorts of rumours and stories flying around about why Clough sold me to Wednesday. But there had been no bust-ups between him and me. I hadn't been misbehaving or breaking any club rules.

"I think it was nothing more than that my face didn't fit. He did the same with Gary Megson and Asa Hartford. He had no sooner bought them than he sold them and that's what he did with me. But that's Brian Clough, isn't it?

"I signed on at Hillsborough on a Thursday and two days later I made my debut...against Nottingham Forest. And in the circumstances you can understand why I was quietly pleased that we won."

Seven years as the "ideas man" of the Wednesday side included the never-to-be forgotten highlight of scoring the winning goal in the 1991 FA Cup final against Manchester United at Wembley.

"Wednesday had an excellent team in the early 90s," he said.

"Our main striker, David Hirst, was every bit as good as Alan Shearer in his prime and we had other terrific players like Viv Anderson and our skipper Nigel Pearson who really led by example.

"Apart from the win against United, I played in two other FA Cup finals during my time at Hillsborough but we lost both of them to Arsenal.

"And I almost ended up with a championship medal in the year Leeds won the title. If Leeds and Manchester United had lost on the final day of the season and we had won, we would have been the champions.

"Still, we had pushed two massive clubs all the way so I think that proves what a good side we were."

A transfer to Bolton Wanderers in 1997 brought Sheridan immediate promotion back into the Premiership under Colin Todd's stewardship with one last hurrah beckoning the 35-year-old midfield maestro when he answered the call from Andy Ritchie to go to Boundary Park.

"I had thought of retiring while I was still at Bolton because of the state of my right knee, but Andy was struggling at Oldham because of all the cut-backs so I thought I would see if I could help him out," he explains.

"I did officially retire last season after Iain Dowie had taken over but he asked me to stay on and help coach the reserves and the youth team.

"Because of the financial situation at the time, Oldham were unable to appoint a new manager when Iain left for Crystal Palace and it was on his recommendation that I was asked to take charge at Boundary Park on a caretaker basis.

Transition

"Being the manager wasn't something I was actively pursuing at the time and making that transition from being one of the lads to boss has had its difficult moments.

"But I've caught the bug, there's no doubt about that. I won't make any bones about it.

"I want to be this club's full-time manager and the people in charge at Boundary Park know that.

"The players have given me everything and I know I've got the backing of our supporters but, of course, the decision about whether I become the permanent manager is out of my hands.

"But I do believe that I can do the job - and do it well. I see myself now as the manager of a soccer club. Hopefully it will be here at Boundary Park, but if not here, somewhere else.

"Sometimes you don't know that a job will suit you until you are actually doing it, but I know now that being a manager suits me right down to the ground.

"All I can do is to hope that the people running this club feel the same way."

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